Manila – A volcano erupted briefly in the central Philippines on Monday, sending a huge column of ash high into the air as the government ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from surrounding villages. Kanlaon, over 2,500 meters above sea level on the central island of Negros, is one of the 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines.
A nearly four-minute eruption on Monday afternoon produced an ash column 2.5 miles (4 km) above the crater and a deadly eruption of hot ash, gases and fragmented volcanic rock about 2 miles (3.2 km) along the mountain’s southeastern flank, officials told a news conference. The country’s volcano alert level has been raised, indicating more explosive eruptions could still follow.
There were no casualties in Monday’s eruption, but volcanic ash fell over a wide area, including Antique province, some 120 miles (190 kilometers) out to sea west of the volcano. The ash cloud obscured visibility and created a potential health risk, officials warned.
A screenshot of a video shared by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology shows Mount Kanlaon volcano erupting on December 9, 2024. / Credit: Philippine Information Agency/PHIVOLCS
“Being hit by these pyroclastic density currents is like being run over by a fast vehicle,” said Maria Antonia Bornas, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
“If the ash gets into your lungs, it would cause suffocation,” she said, urging local officials to evacuate 15 villages within six kilometers of the crater.
She said ash from the eruption rained on several nearby towns and cities around the volcano and warned that heavy rains could loosen fresh volcanic sediment from the last eruption, burying communities beneath it.
A vehicle drives on a road covered in volcanic ash in Bago City, Negros Occidental province, Philippines, December 10, 2024, a day after an eruption of Mount Kanlaon. /Credit: Chona Aplaon/AP
About half a dozen domestic flights and one bound for Singapore were canceled Monday and Tuesday due to the eruption, the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority said.
“Evacuations are underway” in four high-altitude villages of the town of La Castellana, on the volcano’s southwestern slope, municipal police officer Staff Sergeant Ronel Arevalo told AFP, adding that he did not have the total number of residents to be evacuated. The Philippine government said in a message on its official information agency website that an “urgent evacuation operation is underway, affecting approximately 87,000 residents” in the area around the volcano.
La Castellana resident Dianne Paula Abendan, 24, used her cell phone to capture a video clip of a giant cauliflower-shaped mass of gray smoke billowing above the crater.
Mount Kanlaon volcano erupts in Negros Occidental province, Philippines, on December 9, 2024, in a photo obtained from social media. /Credit: Dianne Paula Abendan/REUTERS
“In recent days we have seen black smoke coming out of the volcano. We expected it to erupt this week,” she told AFP by phone.
Abendan said people rushed home as they waited for evacuation orders, but added that volcanic activity appeared to subside somewhat about an hour later.
Authorities said flights to and from Bacolod-Silay International Airport, closest to the volcano, remained normal, but airlines were warned not to fly lower than 3,000 meters near the volcano.
“Flight operators are advised not to fly close to the volcano due to possible hazards from sudden steam-driven or phreatic eruptions and preliminary magmatic activity,” said an official bulletin from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
In September, hundreds of local residents were evacuated after the volcano spewed thousands of tons of harmful gases in a single day. The seismology bureau said Kanlaon has erupted more than 40 times since 1866.
In 1996, three hikers died as a result of ash emitted from the volcano.
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